Aspiring funeral director and embalmer Ternisha Thompson was shocked to see her name and license number on nearly 100 death certificates before she even landed her first job.

According to a Shelby County Circuit Court judgment, Hickory Hill Funeral Home has been ordered to pay Thompson $100,000 for using her embalmer's license without her knowledge or consent.

'I was hurt,' Thompson, 25, said. 'I felt like I was being betrayed.'

The Whitehaven High School graduate attended mortuary school in Nashville and returned to Memphis to work in an apprenticeship at a Memphis funeral home. It was there that another employee told her Hickory Hill was hiring, Thompson said.

According to the judgment, she applied in November 2014, and funeral home manager Dwight Crayton told her to bring a copy of her embalming license with her to the interview. She was offered the job on the spot, she said.

'I was informed I had the position, that they would keep in contact with me about the openings and all the works of the funeral home, but I never heard anything back from them,' Thompson said. 'I tried contacting them several times and I just kept getting the runaround.'

She moved on and searched for other job opportunities until her boyfriend's father told her some unsettling news. In June 2015, he mentioned to a friend who worked in the industry that she was looking for work, but 'the guy he spoke with said I was already employed with Hickory Hill as a licensed embalmer,' Thompson said. Confused, Thompson had a friend call the funeral home and ask for her by name.

' ... The receptionist told her I wasn't in at the moment. I was furious,' Thompson said. 'My friend left her name and her number for the apparent Ternisha to call her back. Not even five minutes later the office manager called her back and told her that I no longer worked there.'

The next day, June 16, 2015, she filed a complaint with the State Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers in Nashville and contacted the Shelby County Health Department to request copies of any death certificates with her name and license number attached. They eventually found 91 certificates filed by Hickory Hill with her name and license number, according to the judgment. Someone from the funeral home tried to file one on the same day she reported the issue to the health department, the judgment said.

'I felt robbed of my first opportunity to see my name and license number (on a certificate),' she said. 'It was all taken from me.'

On September 21, 2015, Thompson filed a complaint alleging fraud, conversion, unjust enrichment and numerous violations of the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act. The funeral home never responded, the judgment said.

Hickory Hill Funeral Home was found guilty of fraud and unjust enrichment on June 24. The funeral home was ordered to pay Thompson $100,000 and $33,333.33 in attorney fees, although she will need to take further legal action to sort out how and when she can collect.

'Our community should be able to trust their funeral homes that they're doing the right thing with people's loved ones,' said Laura Bailey, Thompson's attorney with the Crone Law Firm. 'It's a position of trust and they breached that trust.'

Hickory Hill was also under investigation this spring after two former employees called police in March to say two bodies were abandoned inside the building with no working power for an extended amount of time after the funeral home shut down.

Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance spokesman Kevin Walters said no further action will be taken against the funeral home since both bodies have since been put to proper rest, but Crayton is set for a formal hearing to address allegations of falsifying death certificates.

'We require high standards of professional and ethical conduct from the industry,' Walters said. 'When there is negligence or maleficence in the death care industry, it creates a very emotional and distressful time for the families involved and we work daily to try prevent these instances.'

Crayton's hearing is set for Aug. 9 in Nashville, where the state board will decide what actions to take and whether to permanently revoke his funeral director's license, Walters said. It was summarily suspended on March 8.

'After seeing everything that happened on the news, I'm glad that I stepped in beforehand to clear my name of anything that could have happened,' Thompson said.

Attempts to reach representatives from the funeral home were unsuccessful.

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